Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1887-07-01
THE GAZETTEER.

Child's Caledonia and Essex County
Gazetteer, by Hamilton Child, SYRIA
cuse, N. Y. Bound in American Rus
sia leather, price, $3.50.
This work is in two parts ; part first
is gazetteer of the counties named,
and part second is business directory
of the same counties.
A large portion of part first is COM
piled from such authentic (2) works as
Miss Hemenway's History of Vermont,
Thompeon's Vermont, sc. Of the
original articles that entitled Bench
and Bar ranks first. The writer shows
a keen insight into the characteristics
of the different men spoken of, and
such happy way of describing them,
that anyone who had ever been
brought in contact with the different
parties would recognize them if no
name had been put down.
1t is not of these articles, however,
that we wish to speak, but of the whole
work as II gazetteer. a gazetteer is an
alpha betical descriptive list of persons
and things in any city, town, or cOun-
ty. To be of value it should be accu-
rate and distinct. No person or place
should be spoken of more highly than
any other person or place except as
the facts warrant such praise. There
should be no giving anyone "tatfy,"
but it should contain u cold, impartial
narrative of facts and dates. 1t has
been asserted, with how much truth
we do not know, that individuals hav-
ing an itching to see their names in
print could obtain first class notices in
this gazetteer for a pecuniary consid-
GRAFTON. No doubt this is Islander, but
there are some things observable in
the work which might be taken as
verifying that assertion. For instance,
we find that two such men as Erastus
and Thaddeus Fairbanks are each
awarded about one half u page for
sketches of their lives and the works
they have done. Of course, in work
of this kind, Individual sketches must
necessarily be brief and pointed. But
when we find more than three pages
of the same work devoted to an obit-
uary notice of sixteen year old boy,
he would be bold man who would
deny that there were Influences at work
that made the difference.
In our own town we find that Geo.
III. Fitzgerald, who in the last 10 years,
from the ashes Of an old worn out saw
mill, has built up lumber business
which gives employment to from fifty
to one hundred men, and TO the ma
terial growth and prosperity of Island
Pond village is only second in import
ance to the railroad. is passed by with
five lines at the tail end of the work
under the head of erratta. The pub
Usher would probably claim that this
is what it purports to be, an error.
But errors are not what we buy when
we pay $3.50 for this work. We are
entitled to an accurate and full de-
scriptive list of the men and things of
our county. When men make blum
ders they are the losers by their own
carelessness. MIR. Child makes blum
ders in his gazetteer and his subscribers
are the losers. Mr.. Child is not af ected
by his &C don't care" In reading the
sketches of the different individuals in
Brighton we are struck with the fact
that such men as Arba Joy, E. G. Rob-
inson, Joseph Andrew, Alvin Bartlett,
Ct. Il. Clarke, and others, men whose
lives have been closely connected with
all the interests of this town for many
years, are not mentioned in the gaz-
etteer at all, while we are gravely in
formed that "Lemuel Chase came into
this town in 1865, from Maine. lie was
in the employ of Isaac Dyer for about
twenty years" Surely some of these
men have done as much to add to the
material prosperity of Brighton as Mr.
Chase. These are but few of the
inaccuracies we have noticed in a
hasty examination of this book. On
the whole, although the book contains
many articles and sketches of great
merit, still, as gazetteer, it is inaccu-
rate, incomplete, unreliable, and a
lamentable failure.